This invention relates to an electronic device inspection apparatus and more particularly to an apparatus for inspecting the configuration of terminal legs of an electronic device.
FIG. 1 illustrates in a schematic perspective view one example of a conventional electronic device inspection apparatus. The conventional apparatus includes a TV camera 20 for monitoring an electronic device 1 including a package mould 1a in which an integrated circuit (not shown) for example is hermetically sealed and two arrays of the terminal legs 2 on both sides of the package mould 1a. The terminal legs 2 are arranged at equal intervals.
With the above conventional inspection apparatus, a two-dimensional image of the terminal legs 2 to be inspected is taken by the TV camera 20, and the image of the terminal legs 2 is digitally processed to determine whether or not the terminal legs are positioned at the correct desired positions.
However, the conventional inspection apparatus as above described is disadvantageous in that, while any bend of the terminal legs within a plane perpendicular to the TV camera 20 can be easily detected, no upward or downward bend of the terminal legs can be detected because of the limits of the two-dimensional image of the terminal legs utilized. Also, the TV camera and the associated equipment necessary for image processing are very expensive components, making the resultant inspection apparatus expensive.